aliens, repeal of the Federal Reserve Act, and withdrawal of the United States from the United Nations.

Public klan propaganda has little to say about any "fraternal" benefits of klan membership. Although existing klans lay claim to the ritualism devised by Imperial Wizard Simmons shortly after World War I, they have made no attempt to emulate Simmons' recruitment pitch emphasizing the mystery and fraternity to be found in the klan. In this respect, klan organizations today are more akin to their activist brethren of the post-Civil War period.

CHAPTER V. PUBLIC KLAN ACTIVITY

THE COW PASTURE RALLY

A klan rally is many things. To the curious, it serves as a bizarre form of entertainment. To the klan leaders, it is a vehicle for attracting potential members and hard cash.

Typically, the rally is staged in a farmer's field on the outskirts of a city or town. The main props consist of a 15- to 50-foot-high burning cross and a crude wooden speakers' platform (for which a truck bed is often substituted). Klan security guards, in uniforms reminiscent of storm troopers, are positioned strategically in the milling crowd. Gospel songs, such as The Old Rugged Cross, emanate from an amplifier to which a record player is connected. On the platform are a microphone and klan leaders featured as speakers. The gold, green, or red of their hoods and robes designate their official status within their respective klan organizations.

Raffle tickets may be on sale, affording spectators a chance to win a television set or a $100 carbine. Depending upon the issues of the moment and the geographical area, the rally will draw several hundred spectators or several thousand.

During the rally, contributions will be collected, the disposition of which will be surrounded by an aura of mystery. The speakers will seize the opportunity to vent personal hatreds and prejudices guised in terms of patriotism and other "noble causes." Some remarks border on the incendiary and appear to be a calculated effort to arouse fears and hatreds in the audience-emotions which sometimes find a lawless outlet.

Speech-making functions are usually assigned to a kludd (chaplain) who pronounces an invocation and benediction, a local klan official, and one or more visiting klan dignitaries holding state or national klan office.

Advanced publicity about the lighting of a cross, at the beginning or end of the program, is a gimmick to attract the outsider. The drama inherent in robed figures marching with torches around an illuminated cross has been effectively exploited by klans from the time Simmons introduced his organization in 1915. The klans insist, however, that the cross is a reminder to klansmen to follow Christ's teachings, and the addition of fire simply signifies that "Christ is the light of the world." 1

A cross-burning may be omitted occasionally, but the committee found no evidence of any klan rally without the ceremony of passing the hat or bucket. At this point in the program, the old "shill game" is sometimes utilized. According to the testimony of "the Reverend" Roy Woodle, ex-grand kludd of the United Klans in North Carolina,

1 A photograph of flaming crosses at a klan rally appears on p. 79 of this report. 2 The intake of greenbacks as a result of a public klan rally is illustrated in the photograph appearing on p. 80 of this report.

Crosses blaze at cow pasture rally staged by United Klans of America near Salisbury, N.C., on Aug. 8, 1964. The three klan officials standing together are James Robertson Jones, North Carolina grand dragon; Fred L. Wilson, treasurer of the UKA organization in North Carolina; and Robert Scoggin, South Carolina grand dragon [Fred Wilson Exhibit No. 7-Oct. 25, 1965].

klan members in civilian garb are given sizable sums of cash before the rally begins and are directed to mingle with the audience. In order to stimulate donations from the crowd, these selected klansmen ostentatiously deposit money in the collection hats or buckets. The same formula has been employed when application blanks for klan membership are distributed among the audience. Predetermined members of the klan loudly request membership applications in the hope that their action will encourage others in the audience to follow suit. The strategy also helps give substance to klan claims of an "enormous gain" in membership as a result of a rally.

Woodle, a bricklayer and self-styled preacher who had considerable experience as a guest orator at rallies of the United Klans of America, offered the committee the following impression of such gatherings:

In my honest opinion, the way I see it, [the klan officials] come into town this month, have a rally, get all the money you can get, and get out, and say, "Now, you folks work hard, get all the members you can. We will be back next year for another rally."

And then on other occasions, I saw poor men out on the side, can't hardly pay their bills, supporting it, and [the officials] promising you, "We are going to give you the victory. We are going to stand. We are going to stand," but ain't nobody found out what they are going to stand for.

George Dorsett, imperial kludd (national chaplain) of the United Klans of America, takes in the cash after a collection speech at a public rally held by the UKA at Landis, N.C., on Aug. 21, 1965 [George Dorsett Exhibit No. 9-Oct. 27, 1965].

"What they stand for"-according to Robert Shelton, Imperial Wizard of the United Klans-is a "return" of the Government "into the hands of the people instead of a mob bureaucracy of sex perverts and Communist atheists that we have leading our government in America today." Shelton's statement, made at a Bear, Del., rally on July 31, 1965, is typical of efforts by klan speakers to portray themselves as last-ditch patriots, warring against communism and immorality. His

remarks also illustrate the klans' habit of misrepresenting actual Communist problems by over-exaggeration, distortion and outright falsification. As klan oratory continues, however, it becomes obvious that the klan's vaunted anti-communism is a pretext for venomous attacks on minority groups. This is demonstrated in the speech made by Robert Shelton at a United Klans rally in North Carolina on October 28, 1961:

*** We are one klan in our unchangeable determination that these United States will be saved from destruction under this foul combination of NegroJewish communism. * * * Yes, our mortal enemy as of old is the jungle descendant of the Negro, but today he has banded together with the non-white, moneydrunk, anti-Christian Jew who has influenced him, financed him, propagandized him, defended him falsely in our courts and enslaved him into his Jewish-owned and controlled NAACP. It operates at the direction of the American Jewish Communists. * * * The so-called American Jew has made a greater slave of the Negro than he ever was in the year 1860.

*** Both political parties are bought lock, stock and barrel by this same manipulator. The evil scheme of the manipulator to overthrow the American government cannot be denied by any just man. Therefore they are traitors and they are not American. Their supreme loyalty, by their own admission, is to one world "jew-ery" with the gentile white man branded as their slaves.

CONTRADICTORY STANCES ON VIOLENCE

The bulk of klan rallies staged in recent years has been under the aegis of the United Klans of America or the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc. Leaders of both organizations have told rally audiences that the klan is dedicated to legal methods and opposed to violence.

A closer examination of klan leaders' public statements and activities leads to the conclusion that disavowals of terrorism are beamed at law enforcement authorities rather than klansmen. The leaders have failed to demonstrate that the klans as presently operated have more respect for the law than their predecessor organizations.

The committee observed that klan leaders habitually leave the door open to violence by vague qualifications in their public disavowals of violent intent. They also customarily refer to laws as being imposed by an enemy minority in control of the Federal Government in violation of the American Constitution "as originally written." When emotion-packed oratory against minority groups is added, the net effect is an encouragement of lawlessness.

An illustration is provided by Imperial Wizard Shelton's performance at the rally in October 1961, previously referred to. The wizard portrayed the United Klans as a "new, modern jet-age klan" with "ideals" which "have not changed one bit since 1867." The scalawags of today, Shelton said, are the "alien thieves and traitors" who control the United States Government. He identified them as a Communistdirected combination of Negroes and Jews. The klan disrespect for laws enacted under such a government was indicated by Shelton's next statement:

The sword of justice in all klan meetings means justice under constitutional law as written by our forefathers and now * * * twisted by evil men who plot our country's downfall and whose sole purpose is monetary and political gain. With respect to klan aims, Shelton said that the klan "does hereby make an open declaration of war against the evils of Negroism and